Second Test Disaster

 

 

Ashes 2015

 

Second Test Horror Story

 

July 28^th 2015

Sometimes you are just grateful to have missed a particularly unpleasant trainwreck. I was fortunate enough to have been in an isolated part of the UK on holiday, with only intermittent Internet access.

After the unexpected win at Cardiff and the discipline and aggressivity shown by the England side, Lord’s was a return to the worst moments of the 2013/14 Ashes series. By the end of Day 1 you knew what was coming. Lose the Toss. See your opponents rack up 337-1 and, worse, know that one definite chance and at least one half-chance that would have limited the damage have been missed.

The England surrender was as predictable as it was depressing. Whereas England found nothing in the pitch, the Australian seam attack looked as if they were bowling hand-grenades in a minefield. When you are 30-4 chasing 566-8d you know that things are hopeless and, despite first innings defiance from Cook and Stokes and, to a lesser degree, Moeen Ali, Australia just needed to pick up occasional wickets, avoid a huge stand developing and think about the Follow-On.

Of course, Michael Clarke did not enforce it, reasoning that a second innings kicking, chasing leather as the lead built to inhuman proportions would crack England’s morale even more. He was right. Five front-line batsmen got into double figures but only the “swing and a giggle” Stuart Broad passed 20. It was pathetic.

Australia: 820 runs for 10 wickets. England 415 runs for 20 wickets. It was a measure of the gulf between the sides.

Now we have the crisis that we feared.

·         Adam Lyth (0 & 7) looks as if he is batting with Geoff Boycott’s stick of rhubarb.

·         Gary Ballance looks like the Ballance of the World Cup and not the world-conquering batsman of summer 2014.

·         Ian Bell (1 & 11) looks like he does not even have a stick of rhubarb for a bat. In 2013, Bell was the hero of the series; in 2015 he looks helpless.

Mitch-watch: 15, 20.1-8-53-3 and 10-3-27-3.

This was the Mitch J of 2013/14 and England could not cope with it. Which Mitch will appear for the 3^rd Test? If it is this one, the series may start to get very one-sided.